In a Name
by Ethereal-Aria
Summary: Gabriella had never believed in doodling during class, but that was until she met a certain boy.  Ryella.  OneShot.


Gabriella had never believed in doodling during class.

She saw countless people draw squiggles, hearts and initials representing the names of their crushes on their previously pristine notes and sheets of loose-leaf and couldn't help but think it a waste of paper. She saw the more art-oriented people sketching eyes and obscure figures and profiles in the margin of their work and the lazy, silly ones trace rough, senseless cartoons all over their agendas. The end result of their absent-minded doodles were otherwise clean pages smudged with lead and sullied by useless drawings. She'd always prided her immaculate sets of notes and pages of work and had absolutely no intention of dirtying her hard work with silly sketches.

That was until she met a certain boy.

Her mind that used be uncluttered and free of frivolous and far-away thoughts was now filled to the brim with romantic whims and flights of fancy. She pictured herself with his last name, imagined his lips upon hers and loved to simply conjure up an image of him in her head. Thoughts that she would have scoffed upon at one point, she now lived and breathed; in fact, now she truly understood the need behind doodling little hearts in the margins of her notes. How else was she to release these surges of emotion she felt so often?

One day, during a Math class, hearts scattered over the expanse of lined paper wasn't cutting it for her; she had to express her feelings for him in a more definite way. How she wished she could simply write his name with as much flourish and care as she felt for him…

Without realizing it, she slowly traced out a curvy 'R'. Resting her head upon her left hand and chasing away a stray curl with a flick of her head, she glanced around cautiously; everyone was immersed in the algorithms she'd finished minutes ago. Not a soul was looking in her direction. Turning her attention back to her page, she drew an equally as fancy 'Y' below her 'R' and then, in that pattern, an 'A' and finally an 'N'.

Feeling insanely self-conscious – as if everyone could see the name she'd written – she decided that had to cover it up somehow. Sneaking a furtive look at him, she quickly brought her eyes back to her paper. She decided to attach a word to the letters of his name. With the 'R', she wrote '_Rapturous_'.

Sighing, she concluded that she couldn't have thought of a better word for him; 'rapture' couldn't have summed up her emotions any more perfectly. Now, what to do with a 'Y'?

Shaking her head with a light pout, she decided that she'd skip that letter. An 'A'? Perhaps '_Adorable'_ or '_Attractive' _or even _'Alluring'. _Finally, she decided on _'Alluring'_ as it seemed more sensual than the other words.

And if there was on thing that he was, it was sensual.

A shiver ghosted her skin at the thought and she had to push on for fear of a blush spreading across her cheeks. An 'N'? What to do with an 'N'? Thinking hard, she tuned out from the little noises of the class around her and scanned through the extensive thesaurus in her head. Finally, she decided to cheat and wrote '_strikiNg'_, inserting the 'N' in the middle of the word. Smiling at her wit, she deemed it suitable to do the same for the 'Y'. Once again, she took a few moments to contemplate him and then mentally flip through her vocabulary.

Eventually, she satisfied herself with _'eYe-catching'_ and her page looked something like this:

_**R**__apturous_

_ e__**Y**__e-catching_

_**A**__lluring_

_ striki__**N**__g_

Catching herself staring at it and breaking through the veil of infatuation that had hung over her mind, she shook herself and quickly took and eraser to her work. She scrubbed furiously at the letters and words she'd shamelessly tarnished her hard work with and dejectedly wiped away the leftover, gummy bits of eraser. Her page had been wiped clean of her feelings.

Sighing, she snuck another look at him and unconsciously, her hand sketched a tiny heart in the margin of her notes.


End file.
